What is the best way to refund for a lost package?

[richard1rst]

eBay only offers 3 reasons for cancelling an order:

I’m out of stock (which gets a defect)

The buyer requested it

There is something wrong with the address.

But none of those reasons apply for the following.

What if a package gets lost in transit? I don’t have a problem giving a refund for a lost package. But what reason should I use? I can issue a refund through Paypal but then eBay will show the sale as unpaid and start hounding me about an invoice (or at least they did the last time). Plus I don’t get my FVF back as I would with a cancellation.

I can’t really say there is something wrong with the address. I can try to get the buyer to agree to a request a cancellation but that puts the onus on them when they would rather have the item.

Suggestions?

My experience with the post office is that they very rarely lose a package. But they do occasionally lose one. I have seen tracking suddenly “lock up” and report “package is on the way to the next destination” - and there it ends eventually becoming a no show.

If I have another copy I do not have a problem sending a replacement. If I do not have another copy I have no problem giving the buyer a refund. That is not the issue here even though I suspect there are some who will disagree.

[bubbleman2010]

If twacking doesn't show any activity then refund ebays not rocket science 101...

[sam9876]

"I never use letter rate. It is always FCM or PM with tracking"

What does that mean?

[Anonymous]

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@richard1rst wrote:

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@buyselljack2016 wrote:

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INR cases will be used in the new metric to possibly increase seller's FVF by 4% if they are too high compared to their "peers".

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Which really sucks because now WE are being penalized if the post office loses a package. That is what my original question was seeking to avoid.

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Don't worry about it because the info above is not accurate. The criteria that need to be met are pretty specific and even if your rate is high you will not be subject to higher fees.

How are my benchmarks determined?

To determine your "item not received" peer benchmark, we group you with sellers that:

• List on the same eBay site and to ship to the same destination.
• Share the same assessment lookback period, as determined by transaction volume.
• Have a similar average selling price.
• Sell items with similar buyer-facing delivery estimates.

What are the consequences of having very high rates of "item not received?"

Starting September 2018, for a small group of sellers who have very high rates of after-sale requests the following consequences may apply:

Item not received: Time added to buyer-facing delivery estimates for affected shipping destinations

You will only experience consequences if you have at least ten requests in the line of business and your "item not received" rate is greater than 1 percent.

[mam98031]

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@bubbleman2010 wrote:

Just refund through paypal keeps you off the radar and write the loss off on taxes....

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This unfortunately does not keep you off Ebay's radar.  PP updates the Ebay transaction with the refund, so now it shows as unpaid.  Ebay can and does give sellers a defect for fully refunding a buyer without a corresponding cancellation or claim in Ebay.

[mam98031]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@buyselljack2016 wrote:

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INR cases will be used in the new metric to possibly increase seller's FVF by 4% if they are too high compared to their "peers".

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This is not true.

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In buyselljack's defense, the policy has changed in the past few days.  In the link below, just a few days ago it did read that if you were in the Very High rates they MAY increase your delivery dates OR apply the 4% FVF penalty.  It really did say that just a few days ago as I was having a discussion with someone else and we were going over everything very carefully.  So Ebay has changed the policy again.  Similar to when the added the thing about for SNADs a seller must have a minimum of 10 in the Eval period to have the peer benchmarks apply.  That wasn't in there in the beginning, but is now, which is a good thing to be sure.

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/selling-policies/seller-performance-policy/service-metrics-policy?id=4769&st=3&pos=1&query=Service%20metrics%20policy&context=9060_SELLER#full%20policy

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the link. That's a poorly worded policy page (no surprise there).

Sellers who have an evaluation rate as Very High (meaning a very high percentage of transactions result in 'item not as described' returns and 'item not received' requests) might be subject to increased final value fees or time automatically added to delivery estimates.

It would be more clear if it said:

Sellers who have an 'item not as described' evaluation rate as a Very High percentage of transactions may be subject to increased final value fees. Sellers who have an 'item not received' evaluation rate as Very High percentage of transactions may be subject to time automatically added to delivery estimates.

[mam98031]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thanks for the link. That's a poorly worded policy page (no surprise there).

Sellers who have an evaluation rate as Very High (meaning a very high percentage of transactions result in 'item not as described' returns and 'item not received' requests) might be subject to increased final value fees or time automatically added to delivery estimates.

It would be more clear if it said:

Sellers who have an 'item not as described' evaluation rate as a Very High percentage of transactions may be subject to increased final value fees. Sellers who have an 'item not received' evaluation rate as Very High percentage of transactions may be subject to time automatically added to delivery estimates.

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No argument there.  You are absolutely correct once again.

[buyselljack2016]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@buyselljack2016 wrote:

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INR cases will be used in the new metric to possibly increase seller's FVF by 4% if they are too high compared to their "peers".

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This is not true.

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Here is what I see when I search.  5 minutes ago.

What happens if I'm not performing as well as my peers?

Sellers who have an evaluation rate as Very High (meaning a very high percentage of transactions result in 'item not as described' returns and 'item not received' requests) might be subject to increased final value fees or time automatically added to delivery estimates.

I can only read what I see. I can not read between the lines to see something that is not there.

[Anonymous]

@buyselljack2016, you're right and I didn't know the policy page was so confusing until Mam pointed it out above. I had been going off of the Seller Update pages which are less confusing and I wondered why so many posters kept saying INRs result in a fee increase. Now it makes sense.

@Anonymous, can you submit this policy page for improvement? The way it's written as a single sentence is causing confusion as you can see in the above posts.

[mopata]

I would simply contact the buyer apologizing for the lost package and ask him or her "would you like me to cancel the transaction and issue a full refund?". If they say yes, which they likely will, you can legitimately cancel the transaction because the buyer requested it.

[patd3283]

Have you gone to the USPS site and entered the tracking number and ask for updates?

I find that the frequently breaks 'lost' packages free and they are delivered.

Patd

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

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@Anonymous wrote:

@buyselljack2016, you're right and I didn't know the policy page was so confusing until Mam pointed it out above. I had been going off of the Seller Update pages which are less confusing and I wondered why so many posters kept saying INRs result in a fee increase. Now it makes sense.

@Anonymous, can you submit this policy page for improvement? The way it's written as a single sentence is causing confusion as you can see in the above posts.

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Hi @Anonymous, thanks so much for getting my attention on this! I think this callout is a great suggestion and I've sent it over to the content teams for review. I can see how specifying this into two separate statements or even just adjusting the wording to clarify that it is 'either A or B, respectively' would clear up some confusion.

@richard1rst, I also wanted to touch on the situation you describe and clarify that the appropriate process for issuing a full refund when an item was not received by your customer is through an item not received request. I would recommend letting your buyer know that you are happy to refund them as soon as they open this request from their purchase history. This will ensure that both parties receive the full protection of our eBay Money Back Guarantee, that your final value fees are automatically credited and create record this transaction accurately.